Re: SciAm article "Fate of Life in the Universe"

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Oct 20 1999 - 08:49:34 MDT


Spudboy100@aol.com writes:

> In a message dated 10/20/1999 5:04:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> asa@nada.kth.se writes:
>
> > What is Tegmark's solution to extinction? I thought he was more
> > involved in the "everything" theory, which of course implies that in
> > *some* universes, if it is possible at all, intelligent life will
> > never be extinct.
>
> Congradulations. Yes and in some Universes we never go extinct, we being
> intelligent life, we being Anders Sandberg. Anders Sandberg in Universe #
> 770,985, 123,035 has ascended to be Anders the Magnificent, intersteller
> explorer, and free-lance,gynecologist. He among all the others, will
> increase the information load both inside and outside the universes. Why
> can't all the other Anders be like that one? Those slackers!

Exactly. Of course, all of us other Anders think that #770,985,123,035
is awfully smug.

The problem with the "everything" model (which Moravec also seems to
be subscribing to, and Egan plays with in _Permutation City_) is that
it doesn't really help us *here* and *now*. Is there any point in
going on with my life if 770,985,123,035 does it so much better? In
the end there is only one universe we experience at a time (unless we
can transform ourselves into cross-timeline and cross-reality
entities).

> Have we even talked
> about trans-luminal travel or hypertime dimensions? That would be undermining
> the premises of currently responsible astrophysicists pardigm's ; or c.r.a.p.
> for short.

FTL travel has been discussed here a few times; most schemes have
serious problems with causality or quantum mechanics. If it is
possible, we live in a weird universe. Hypertime dimensions, are they
really so far out? Hawking is apparently working on them.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y


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